How Can I Improve My Website?

I was asked this question today. I like these questions. It gives me a chance to show off my expertise and at the same time help educate others about good web design.

Having visited his website earlier, I mentioned a few things I thought would help. I wanted to share my suggestions…

1. Make sure your navigation menu is near the top of the page. It can be very frustrating for your visitors to have to scroll down each time to navigate through your website. Each irritation a visitor has can lead to non-returning visitors, or worse, non-inquiring visitors.
2. Make sure all your important information is at the top of the page and all the less important or not as important information at the bottom. If you need to say something important, keep it near the top where your visitors can see it immediately. (Search Engines follow these guidelines too)
3. If you have a multiple-menu navigation system, make sure each sub-menu is clearly identified. Choose to indent, create a drop-down, choose a different color or add a smaller font. If each sub-menu looks or is located in the same place as your main menu, you could be confusing your visitors.

Remember, your visitors want to know where they are, where they can go, and where they’ve been.

’til next time.